‘From Race Control’ – Day 2 of 2WD Buggy

After yesterday’s long delays and very late finish to proceedings, Day 2 of the World Championship for 2WD Electric Buggy is running to schedule with the second round of controlled practice gettting things underway.  Having run 15 cars in the heats yesterday today only 10 buggies will be on track at a time, the running order is mostly determined by each drivers 2-consecutive fastest laps from last night’s first controlled practice.  One noticeable adjustment to that is Darren Bloomfield who set the 12 fastest time but has been moved into the Top Heat as Buggy No.10.  Once the final practice is complete things are set to step up a notch as we get down to the serious business of qualifying with four of the five 5-minute rounds making up today’s (Tuesday) programme.  The first qualifier is due to hit the track at 10:10 local time here in California with the Day 2 set to wrap up shortly before 17:30.

Video – Daimon Borkowicz Worlds Debut diary

In the first of a series of diary videos this week we catch up with World Championship debutant, up and coming Florida talent Daimon Borkowicz. The 13 year old Associated/JConcepts driver is the protege of JConcepts founder and World Championship finalist Jason Ruona.

Evans top seed for Worlds Qualifying

Dustin Evans topped the first controlled practice to secure the position of top seed for tomorrow’s qualifying, the Team Losi Racing driver outpacing Tamiya’s Lee Martin over the fastest 2-consecutive laps by just over 2/10ths with TLR team-mate Mike Truhe completing the Top 3 on what was a long opening day to the 2WD Electric Offroad World Championships. With controlled practice the first time drivers got to run a full 5-minute heat, it was Truhe who took his Novak powered TLR22 around the Silver Dollar track in the fastest time doing 11-laps in 5:24.016 with Martin posting a very similar pace just .226 adrift.

Behind them HB’s Ty Tessmann, who over 2-consecutive laps lacked a little pace, set the third fastest time followed by Tamiya’s Marc Rheinard and Associated’s two Ryans, Maifield faster than defending Champion Cavalieri. Evans, who had issues with traffic in CP1 in the 15-car heat preventing him from setting a good 5-minute time, said his Orion powered TLR22 was ‘fast & comfortable to drive’ and he was ‘super happy’ to be top seed for qualifying which will see the number of buggies on track at a time reduced to 10.

Top 12 Controlled Practice times
1. Dustin Evans – TLR – 57.658
2. Lee Martin – Tamiya – 57.884
3. Mike Truhe – TLR – 57.974
4. Jared Tebo – Kyosho – 58.264
5. Ryan Cavalieri – Associated – 58.339
6. David Ronnefalk – Kyosho – 58.352
7. Ryan Maifield – Associated – 58.393
8. Steven Hartson – Associated – 58.468
9. Dakotah Phend – TLR – 58.496
10.Yusuke Sugiura – Kyosho – 58.5
11.Naoto Matsukura – Yokomo – 58.706
12.Darren Bloomfield – TLR – 58.7811

View the event image gallery here.

Bloomfield fastest in final free practice

Team Losi Racing’s Darren Bloomfield set the outright pace in the 6th & final round of free practice at the 1:10 Electric Offroad World Championships, the British driver just a fraction faster over a single lap of the Silver Dollar track than Team Associated’s Ryan Maifield who posted the quickest race time for the round.  Tamiya’s Lee Martin made it three different manufacturers at the top with a best lap that was just 3/1000th quicker than TLR’s Dustin Evans.

Having been playing with getting the balance right between his mid motored TLR22 being too easy or too nervous to drive, Bloomfield said for FP6 he got it right adding that the lower temperatures probably played a part too.  After a delayed start to Day 1 of the event to allow the track to fully dry after heavy rain two days earlier, the final round of practice ended under flood lights with Darren running in the last of the ten 15 car heats.  Declaring himself very happy with where his buggy is now at he said he is confident going into the first timed practice tonight from which the fastest 2-consecutive laps will count towards a reseeding for tomorrow’s qualifying.  Overall there was an air of confidence in the TLR camp with Evans very happy with his 22 after making a change to lighter shock oil all round for the final practice.  The former US Champion said the change made his buggy more agile.  Running against the trend running his 22 in rear motor configuration, current US Champion Dakotah Phend was a lot more upbeat after his final practice saying things were now ‘a lot better’.  Changing from Proline’s Scrubs to their ION tyre, the 16-year-old now has the steering he was looking for and with a few small tweaks to his set-up believes he should be good for the first run when times will officially count for something.

In the Associated camp, Maifield was a little less enthusiastic than his rivals about where he was at.  Describing how free practice had gone he summed it up as ‘OK’ adding that it was hard to drive without crashing, the track proving difficult in respect to being able to run a full clean 5-minutes.  In terms of his B4.2 he said it felt pretty good but after after a long busy day of running on the hour every hour he is looking forward to getting the opening day done and starting a fresh tomorrow.  Team-mate and reigning World Champion Ryan Cavalieri said it hadn’t been the best of days with him having a number of technical issues.  Suffering a motor problem and having his gear mesh move in the final free practice, he said problems aside his B4.2 is working really well and with both issues now sorted he should be good.  The final practice saw Associated’s Steven Hartson find good pace as he ran a 28-second lap.  Hartson said he has been really happy with his buggy all day and the improvement just came from his driving, adding that the more laps he puts in the quicker he has been able to go.  Although he sat out FP6 in order to help the two Ryans, Kody Numedahl declared himself ‘satisfied’ adding he is feeling really good about his form going into the controlled practice.

Having changed to a thicker diff oil for FP5 and then reverted back to what he used earlier for his final free practice, HB’s Ty Tessman said he was happier with how his Kyosho RB6 ran in the sixth practice.  Motoring up for FP5 he said he was happier with the 6.5T Orion unit and the only planned change for the first controlled practice is to run a new set of Proline’s directional Scrubs tyre mounted for smooth feeling having previously run them in the aggressive direction.

Running Tamiya’s mid motored TRF201 XM, former European Champion Lee Martin said the buggy is running good but in the final run there were a few spots on the track where it was doing funny things due to some sort of electric problem.  As a result he will fit a new speedo and receiver wire which should hopefully cure the issue without which he is pretty confident about his pace for the counting 2-consecutive laps.

Current European Champion Joern Neumann said considering the lack of mileage with Durango’s latest prototype, which he only got to run for the first time today, free practice had gone ok.  Describing the new buggy as ‘much better’ than its predecessor he said they are still learning how it reacts to set-up changes.  Using the last practice to try a different front tyre he said the JConcepts Barcodes gave the buggy understeer and so he will revert to back to their Dirt Webs.

Heading the Asian challenge, Team Yokomo’s Naoto Matsukura said a change to the rear camber link on his B-Max2MR gave him more grip but the recently turned 20-year-old said he wants more.  Happy with his own driving the Japanese star will make some more set-up tweaks for the controlled practice round.

View the event image gallery here.

Naoto fastest at halfway point of Worlds practice

With the first half of free practice for the 1:10 Electric Offroad world Championships complete in Chico, California, it is Team Yokomo’s Naoto Matsukura who set the outright pace posting a 28.629 lap of the Silver Dollar R/C Raceway.  The Japanese ace was one of only four drivers to break into the 28-second lap times in FP3 with Associated’s Ryan Maifield second fastest followed by Kyosho pairing David Ronnefalk and Jared Tebo.  In terms of total laps, and consistency, it was Associated’s Kody Numedahl who set the overall pace with 10 laps in a 4:56.156 with reigning champion Ryan Cavalieri the only other driver to clock up 10 laps.

A finalist at the 2011 Worlds, Matsukura was pleased with his pace saying a rear set-up change had made his mid-motored B-Max2MR easier to drive than in the opening two runs.  Running Proline’s Scrub front tyre, drivers having the option to run any front tyre in combination with the controlled rear Proline Suburb, the 3-time 1:12 Onroad World Champion said he will make a further small tweak to the rear end.  Liking the high traction, something the World class onroad driver would be used to, he said having in the past struggled with bigger jumps he is really liking the big jumps here with his confidence getting the landings right growing every run.

Summing up his 10 lap run, Numedahl said his C4.2 was ‘consistent but not a rocket ship’.  The Team Associated designer said his main focus over the three practice rounds was on getting the right tyre balance.  Running JConcepts Dirtweb on the front in FP3 he said for the fourth practice he will try the same tyre but with a closed cell insert as he looks to get the balance between the buggy being too easy or too hard to drive which he added is a fine line on the high traction sugar treated track.

Team-mate Maifield, who ran a 28.714 lap time, said he is still ‘battling some things’, struggling in particular with his slipper set-up, but overall summed up his early runs as ‘not bad’.  With Proline Scrubs proving the front tyre of choice, Maifield like Numedahl is running JConcepts on the front of his Reedy powered mid motored C4.2, the Arizona ace choosing orange compound Barcodes.  Another of Associated’s title contenders, Neil Cragg, who had a strong opening run, hasn’t had much luck since.  In his second practice the British ace had a servo horn break while in FP3 his slipper came loose but the former World Champion said when his C4.2 was running it was ‘working pretty good’.

Current European 1:8 Nitro Offroad Champion Ronnefalk was very happy with his RB6 adding that it was the driver that needed to be worked on and not the mid motored buggy.  Switching to a geardiff which gave him more forward traction and installing a rear sway bar which improved stability through the sweeper, a set similar to which he ran last week during his testing at Norcal Hobbies, he said the buggy feels ‘awesome’.  Very comfortable with the jumps he said the flat section in front of the drivers stand is a weak point and will be his focus for the remaining 3 free practice runs.

Making changes to his diff for FP3, Tebo said the run didn’t start well with the diff feeling like it was broken but by the end of the run it had sorted itself out with his Orion powered RB6 feeling really good by the end of the 5-minutes.  Running the same set of Proline Scrub front tyres in his three runs, he said they are now done and he will fit a new set for FP4 along with making a small change to the rear shock set-up.

Fastest in terms of overall pace in the opening practice, Pre Worlds race winner Ty Tessman didn’t have a good 3rd practice. The Canadian suffered from a lack of bottom end and was also unhappy with a front spring change he made on his Kyosho RB6.  For FP4, he will change his speedo settings as well as going up a motor along with reverting to springs he ran in his earlier runs.

Posting the fastest lap time in FP1, TLR’s Darren Bloomfield suffered a lack of brakes in his lastest run but said his biggest problem was his set-up.  The British driver said having been very dificult to drive he went too far with the set-up and now he has a buggy that he could ‘drive around the track all day without any mistakes’ adding its ‘too slow’.  Looking to ‘get speed back’ he will try to make it a little more difficult to drive by changing the position of his front shocks.

View the event image gallery here.